Closure cap comprising covering disc

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a closure cap ( 1 ) comprising a cap ( 2 ) and a cap base ( 3 ) in addition to an inlet ( 9 ) which is arranged in the base of the cap ( 3 ). Said inlet is closed by a membrane seal ( 4 ) which can easily be penetrated. Said closure cap also comprises a covering disk ( 7 ) which is arranged on the external side of the base of the cap ( 3 ) which covers the inlet ( 9 ) and the membrane seal ( 4 ). The aim of the invention is to produce a closure cap ( 7 ) which, according to a manipulation test, enables a container provided therewith to refilled in a precise manner, and whose membrane can be penetrated and which is easier, faster and more simple for the user to recognize. According to the invention, the covering disk ( 7 ) is transparent in at least one area covering the membrane seal ( 4 ).

The present invention relates to a closure cap comprising a cap covering cap barrel and a cap base as well as an access opening in the cap base which is sealed by an easily penetrable membrane seal, and comprising a covering disc arranged on the cap base and covering the access opening with the membrane seal.

Corresponding closure caps are known, for example, in relatively large containers for drinking water, as are found increasingly more frequently in public spaces and in offices or businesses, and which have an approximate volume of 15 to 20 litres (or more precisely, 5 gallons). In use these containers are conventionally positioned or suspended with their opening at the bottom, an extraction valve being placed on the closure cap. The valve conventionally comprises a mandrel which when placed on the closure cap either removes a plug from an access opening or penetrates a membrane seal which seals the access opening and thus makes the connection to the interior of the container. Otherwise the valve is rigidly connected to the closure cap in a sealed manner and the mandrel penetrating the membrane seal or displacing a plug is conventionally hollow and makes the connection to the interior of the container. By actuating the valve drinking water, for example, can then flow from the container and flow through the valve into a drinking cup.

It goes without saying that corresponding closures comprising a membrane seal, which has to be relatively easy to penetrate, are generally unsuitable for containers in which a relatively high pressure can occur. Closure caps and valves of this type are conventionally used for substantially unpressurised containers, such as said drinking water containers, for example.

As during penetration of the membrane the mandrel is also partially conveyed on the surface of the membrane and any dust or dirt, which has potentially accumulated on the outer side of the caps, in particular on the membrane seal, may thus arrive in the interior of the mandrel and thus also in a corresponding removal container, an additional covering disc can in the meantime often be seen in corresponding closure caps. A covering disc of this type is glued to the cap base and in the process covers the membrane seal generally arranged centrally in the removal opening of the cap base in order to thus protect against impurities.

This covering disc can be a thin disc made of plastics material or paper or a thin film which is generally glued to the outer side of the cap base.

However, a drawback of covering discs of this type lies in the fact that the membrane seal sealing the access opening is no longer directly visible. During practical use the covering disc or covering film is sometimes even left on the cover and penetrated, together with the membrane seal, by the mandrel of a corresponding valve if the valve is placed on the cap of the container.

However, even if the covering disc or covering film is removed before placement of the valve and penetration of the membrane with the aid of the valve mandrel, removal of the covering disc and penetration of the membrane often take place in very quick succession, wherein the user generally pays only little or no attention to the condition of the membrane seal.

The situation can occur where corresponding containers, in which the membrane seal of the closure cap has already been penetrated are, with fraudulent intent, refilled with different water, for example plain tap water or if possible water that is unsuitable for drinking, in order to re-sell such a refilled container, the previously removed covering disc being provided over the membrane seal again so that it is not immediately apparent that the seal has already been penetrated or opened. It goes without saying that corresponding attempts at tampering can be made not only in the case of the sale of drinking water or drinking water containers, rather this applies to all applications in which a corresponding membrane seal is used in a cap base which is to be penetrated by a mandrel of an extraction valve or the like.

The present invention is therefore in no way limited to the use of drinking water containers.

In view of the above-mentioned prior art, the object of the present invention is to provide a closure cap in which an attempt at tampering, specifically refilling of the container comprising a closure cap, of which the membrane has already been penetrated, can be detected fundamentally more easily, quickly and simply by the user.

In this case the membrane itself is anyway equipped in such a way that during its penetration several weaker connecting regions between individual membrane portions tear so that even after withdrawal of a corresponding mandrel the membrane has an appearance that discernibly differs from an intact membrane seal.

This object is achieved in that the covering disc is transparent at least in a region covering the membrane seal.

If the covering disc or film over the membrane seal is transparent, the user can see the membrane seal even if the covering disc has not or not yet been removed from the cap base. The membrane seal is thus visible at all times and it can easily be discerned whether it has been penetrated once already. In particular if the covering disc is not soiled, or is briefly cleaned before use, the covering disc, together with the membrane located therebelow, can be penetrated by the mandrel of an extraction valve without the user having to dispense with a visual check of the membrane seal. In this case it is merely a matter of that portion of the covering disc that is located directly over the membrane or membrane seal being transparent and allowing the membrane seal to be discerned. More extensive regions of the covering disc can easily be non-transparent or they can, for example, be imprinted with advertisements or printed with the like. The covering disc is expediently glued to the surface of the cap base. The shape of the covering disc is largely arbitrary in this case, i.e. it can be circular, polygonal or in the form of advertising emblems or the like as long as the area is sufficient to cover the membrane seal and a central region or a region covering the membrane seal is transparent in the covering disc.

The transparent region is expediently centrally provided in the covering disc and is surrounded by other regions which do not have to be transparent, and which, in particular, are printed or coloured in some other way.

It is advantageous if a non-transparent region or not necessarily transparent region annularly surrounds the central transparent region so that the entire area of the covering disc, surrounding the central transparent region, can be glued to the cap base.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention an adhesive is used which, after the detachment of the covering disc from the cap base, loses its adhesion, i.e. which can only be used once.

The covering disc preferably comprises another tab that is not glued, or is only partially glued, to the cap base and which facilitates grasping and removal of the covering disc from the cap base. As already mentioned, the covering disc can, for example, be provided in the form of a thin film but if necessary it can also be produced from a slightly thicker and stronger plastics material. In one embodiment of the invention a further seal or a plug, in addition to the membrane seal, can be provided on the inner side thereof. When using a plug, for example in a cylindrical shoulder forming the access opening on the inner side of the cap base, the closure cap according to the invention can also be used for containers in which a liquid is slightly pressurised, such as drinking water mixed with a small amount of carbon dioxide, as the plug then protects the membrane seal from the internal pressure of the container.

Further advantages, features and application possibilities of the present invention can be found in the following description of a preferred embodiment and the accompanying figures, in which:

FIG. 1 shows an axial section through a closure according to the invention and

FIG. 2 shows a plan view of the cap base with a central covering disc placed thereon.

FIG. 1 shows a closure cap, designated as a whole by 1, which substantially comprises an approximately cylindrical cap barrel or cap covering 2 and a cap base 3 having an approximately centrally arranged access opening 9. The access opening 9 is substantially formed by a central circular recess in the cap base 3 and a hollow cylindrical shoulder 6 issuing from this circular recess. This cylindrical shoulder 6 is sealed in the upper region by a membrane seal 4, wherein the membrane seal 4 could easily also be provided in a position further down in the cylindrical shoulder. In the illustrated embodiment the cylindrical shoulder 6 is not imperative though a further plug (not shown here) could be provided, in addition to the membrane seal, which seals the cylindrical shoulder 6 from below. The cylindrical cap covering 2 has a specific spacing from the cap base 3 and on its inner side has a peripheral bead 8 which engages behind a corresponding projecting edge of a container neck so that the closure cap 1 as a whole can be pushed onto a suitably configured container neck. In addition, there is provided on the cap base another seal 5, which is L-shaped in cross-section and seals the edge of a corresponding container neck and holds the closure tightly on the container neck.

A covering seal 7 which is shown exaggeratedly thick can also be seen on the upper side of the cap base 3 and covers the access opening 9 and, in particular also the membrane seal 4 sealing the access opening 9 from the outside. The covering disc 7 is glued to the cap base 3 in the region surrounding the access opening 9, an adhesive expediently being used which, after detachment of the covering disc 7 from the cap base 3, is no longer adhesive so that, as far as possible, a covering disc 7 once detached can no longer be glued to the cap base 3 unless additional adhesive is used. However even in such a case tampering with the closure cap or the corresponding container would be visible if, for example, the covering disc is removed, the membrane seal 4 penetrated and the container wholly or partially emptied, subsequently refilled with inferior contents and the covering disc then re-glued. As in its central region covering the membrane seal 4 the covering disc 7 is made of a transparent material, potential damage to the membrane seal 4 is also visible even in the case of a re-glued covering disc.

FIG. 2 schematically shows a corresponding cap base 3 of a closure cap 1 with the glued-on covering disc 7 that is transparent in the centre, of which the outer annular region comprises an imprinted advertisement, for example, which in this case is indicated only symbolically by a radial ring of rays. A transparent region of the covering disc 7 can be seen in the centre, under which, in turn, a membrane seal 4, shown as broken in this case, can be seen. The membrane seal for example comprises six to eight individual pie slice-shaped sectors which are connected to each other by thin, tearable connecting portions. After tearing these connecting portions, and this is brought about, for example, by the mandrel penetrating through the seal, the segments of the membrane seal that are reshaped in the process are separated from each other so that a broken-open membrane seal may be discerned very easily if it can be seen through the central transparent region of the covering disc 7. The attention of the user is also directed to this central region in particular by an annular imprinted advertisement and a central transparent region, so that the user will notice damage to the membrane seal immediately. In contrast, while covering discs were known in the prior art, they did not make possible a view of the membrane seal so that damage was often unnoticed even if the covering disc was removed before use as removal of the covering disc and penetration of the mandrel often take place in very quick succession, the user, if possible, not taking the time to examine the membrane seal more closely. Damage to the seal was certainly not discernible if the non-transparent covering disc according to the prior art, together with the membrane, was penetrated by a mandrel of an extraction valve. In the present case damage to the membrane seal can be discerned immediately, however, and without removal of the covering disc so that a closure equipped with a covering disc of this type has fundamentally greater security against tampering and will be better accepted by the customer as he is provided with a better guarantee of originality as a result of the use of a closure cap of this type. 

1. Closure cap (1) comprising a cap covering (2) and a cap base (3) as well as an access opening (9) in the cap base (3) which is sealed by an easily penetrable membrane seal (4), and comprising a covering disc (7) arranged on the outer side of the cap base and covering the access opening (9) with the membrane seal (4), characterised in that the covering disc (7) comprises a central transparent region covering the membrane seal (4) and a non-transparent region, and/or a region provided with an imprint or a printable region, at least partially surrounding the transparent region.
 2. Closure cap according to claim 1, characterised in that the covering disc is substantially circular and comprises a central circular window which is annularly surrounded by a non-transparent and/or printed or printable region.
 3. Closure cap according to claim 2, characterised in that the covering disc is glued to the outer side of the cap base.
 4. Closure cap according to claim 3, characterised in that the covering disc (7) is glued with the aid of an agent to the portion of the cap base (3) surrounding the access opening (9).
 5. Closure cap according to either claim 3 or claim 4, characterised in that the covering disc (7) is fastened to the cap base (3) by such an adhesive which is no longer adhesive after the first detachment of the covering disc from the cap base.
 6. Closure cap according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterised in that the covering disc comprises an unglued or partially glued-on tab.
 7. Closure cap according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterised in that the access opening within the membrane seal (4) is sealed by an additional seal.
 8. Closure cap according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterised in that the access opening (9) is formed by a cylindrical shoulder (6) issuing from the cap base.
 9. Closure cap according to claim 8, characterised in that the free end of the shoulder (6) is sealed by a plug. 